


Better Late Than Never

by unforgettablemagic



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Drinking, Hate Sex, I APOLOGIZE, Lots of Cursing, M/M, Sex, Smut, a lack of harry styles, boys being stupid, cute liam/louis, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-02
Updated: 2013-03-02
Packaged: 2017-12-04 02:52:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/705695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unforgettablemagic/pseuds/unforgettablemagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"And you know, for two people who hate each other so much, you two seem to make quite the conscious effort to get under each others skin a lot. You also talk about each other quite a lot too,” and with that, Liam gets up, clears his trash away, and is gone before Niall can even question, ‘what the fuck?'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Late Than Never

**Author's Note:**

> idk Ziall and fucking plot bunnies. ‘Nuff said. I’m sorry if this is crap. Also, there’s a complete lack of a certain Harry Styles, so i’m sorry about that too.

“I hate him,” Niall grumbles as he throws himself down in the seat next to his best friend Liam. Liam snorts. 

“Do I even need to guess who you’re talking about?”

Niall glares at him, then directs his glare at the dark haired boy that was across the cafeteria, laughing at something that was no doubt at his expense. Niall scowls. “I fucking hate him.”

“I got that.” Liam rolls his eyes and takes a bite of his chip. “You two have always hated each other. Do you guys even remember what it is you hate each other for?”

Niall furrows his brow. “He’s a pretentious prick.”

“You barely even know him.” Liam points out. “He could be very nice.”

Niall looks at him like he’s started speaking another language. “He could be a pretentious prick.  _Which he is._  And you’re too damn nice.”

“So?”

“So you don’t hate anyone. You wouldn’t get it.”

And Liam can’t argue that, because really, he doesn’t hate anyone. He also doesn’t understand why Niall and Zayn can’t just sit down and talk about their issues without throwing punches. But Liam just accepts that its probably one of those things that he’ll never understand, maybe it’s like the ninth wonder of the world… or something.

“Besides,” Niall continues, his mouth now full of food. Liam makes a face. “You can’t just get onto me. He hates me too. It’s mutual.” 

“You know he’s called you pretentious prick too, right?” Liam says suddenly.

“ _You’ve talked to him?_ ” Niall sounds scandalized. “I thought you were on my side, Li! I thought you were my best friend!”

Niall’s over-dramatic and Liam just rolls his eyes. “I am your best friend, twat.”

“But you’re fraternizing with the enemy!” 

“I’m not fr—” 

“Oh, look!” Zayn strolls up to Niall and Liam’s lunch table. “It’s the little leprechaun.”

“Shut the fuck up, Malik.” Niall mutters. 

“Oh, no! The little leprechaun’s mad! Oh, dear! What is going to do? Beat me with his pot of gold?” Zayn mocks, and his friends laugh. “Oh, hey Liam.”

“Hi Zayn,” Liam greets. Niall looks at him in shock, and  _oops_ , now this is kind of awkward. Liam smiles apologetically at his best friend.

Niall ignores Liam in favor of insulting Zayn. “Go fuck off, tattoo boy. You’re not wanted here.” 

Zayn just rolls his eyes and stalks off. 

“I fucking hate him.” Niall repeats his earlier sentiment.

“You’re both ridiculous, you know that right?” Liam tells him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Niall says stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“And you know, for two people who hate each other so much, you two seem to make quite the conscious effort to get under each others skin a lot. You also talk about each other quite a lot too,” and with that Liam gets up, clears his trash away, and is gone before Niall can even question,  _‘what the fuck?’_

Niall then ultimately decides that Liam is absolutely insane and obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and gets up and leaves the cafeteria to head to his Math class, grumbling to himself when he’d realized he hadn’t done his math homework.

-

Later that day, both Niall and Liam are sprawled on Liam’s bed trying to finish their homework so they don’t have to worry about it over the weekend. Or more accurately, Liam is trying to do his homework and Niall is rolling up tiny pieces of paper and chucking them at Liam’s head. Liam ignores Niall for the most part, but even his attention is swayed from his ridiculous History essay when he hears Niall’s phone go off from where its laying on the bed inbetween them.

Niall’s hand whips out and grasps it, obviously excited about whoever it was that just texted him because his face lights up like a christmas tree when he reads the text.

Before Liam can ask, Niall says, “Do you want to go to a party later?”

Liam just raises his eyebrow. Leave it to Niall to get excited over a  _party_. “Where?”

And Niall gets this shit-eating grin on his face and all Liam can think is, _Oh no_ , and Niall says, “Louis Tomlinson’s house. You know, that guy you’ve been crushing on since 8th grade?”

Liam feels his face heat up and he wishes it really hadn’t, because not even a half second later, Niall is rolling around on the bed, laughing and clutching his stomach. 

Liam mutters, “Shut up, wanker,” and shoves Niall off the bed and onto his hard-wood floor. It just makes Niall laugh harder. 

“ _Dude_ ,” Niall huffs out, trying to catch his breath. “You’re so in love with him.”

Liam ducks his head, embarrassed. ” ‘m not,”

“You so are!”

“Whatever. You’re a dick.”

“So,” Niall continues, getting back up onto the bed. “You’re coming right?”

Liam rolls his eyes but nods his head. Then he hits Niall in the face with a pillow when Niall makes suggestive faces at him, and pushes him back onto the floor.

-

When they get there, the party is already in full swing. Loud music is reverberating throughout the whole house, and there are people dancing on furniture and mixing drinks in the kitchen and making out in dark corners. Liam makes a face at the obnoxious group of people shouting obscene words and grinding on each other, and Niall laughs. Niall also knows that Liam would have never agreed to come unless he’d told him that it was Louis Tomlinson’s house. Liam was infatuated with the older lad, although Niall never pointed that out for fear of getting kicked in the balls. 

They weave through the masses of people to the kitchen. Niall immediately goes for the alcohol, grabbing a beer and chugging half of it in one gulp, and Liam finds a coke with very little vodka in it, and he figures he’s safe for right now. 

About ten minutes later, Louis Tomlinson strolls in with a very familiar figure trailing behind him. Liam tries not to visibly light up at the sight of Louis, but Niall feels his blood run cold when his eyes meet the figure behind Louis. _Zayn Malik._ Niall curses to himself; of course Zayn would be here, he’s Louis’ best friend. 

“Nialler!” Louis exclaims delightedly, pulling Niall into a one armed hug. Louis turns around and gets a surprised look on his face when he catches sight of Liam. “Liam! What are you doing here, man? Niall told me you didn’t do parties!” 

Liam shrugs sheepishly. “Yeah well, he kind of also dragged me to this— Wait, why’d Niall tell you that?”

Louis flashes him a dazzling smile. “Because i’ve been wanting invite you to my parties for the past year, but Niall told me that you didn’t like them.” 

“Oh,” Liam mumbles, shooting Niall a slight glare. 

Louis misses the look, grabbing Liam by the wrist and dragging him into the living room, exclaiming “Well now that you’re here, i’m going to show you how to _really_  have fun!”

Niall watches them leave, then he turns to find Zayn glaring at him. “What?” 

“Why the hell are you here?” Zayn asks, not at all nice.

Niall smirks, “Obviously i’m friends with Louis, unless you missed that exchange.”

Zayn rolls his eyes and shoulders past him, pushing Niall into the edge of the counter as he does. Niall glares at his back as Zayn walks away. Within the next hour, Niall drinks two shots and three more beers, making him pleasantly buzzed, and almost tipsy. Through his fuzzy haze, he recognizes that he really has to pee, so he goes upstairs in search of a bathroom. He pushes past people dancing, drinking and dry-humping throughout the hall, and he see’s a door and opens it, not even caring to knock first. He’s greeted with a scary sight. 

Zayn is on his knees in front of some guy, with his mouth attached to the guys dick. The guy was running his hands through Zayn’s hair, tugging slightly at the end. Niall gasps. Both Zayn and the randomer freeze like deer in headlights. The guy becomes flustered, tucks himself back into his pants. He mutters apologies to Niall and pushes past him. Niall just lets him go, too stunned to move. 

“Thanks Horan. You just lost my chance for a good lay tonight. He was a good one too.” Zayn growls at him. 

Niall snorts, no longer frozen from shock. “Yeah, i’m sure you’d have no trouble finding another guy to fuck you.” 

Zayn furrows his brow. “What in the hell do you mean by that?”

“Well, I just meant you aren’t exactly hard to get on your knees, obviously.”

Zayn’s eyes widen in realization as he lets what Niall said sink in. He hears Zayn growl, and suddenly Niall’s body collides into the door behind him, and Zayn is in his personal space. Niall looks up slightly, and his eyes meet Zayn’s. He sees anger and resentment and something else that he can’t really place, but its making them darker than usual. Zayn’s smirking slightly evilly, and Niall starts to feel a little uncomfortable.

“Are you jealous Horan?” Zayn leans forward and whispers into Niall’s ear, sending shivers down his back.

“N-no.” Niall stutters, making Zayn’s smirk widen. 

“Oh, I think you are,” Zayn begins to nibble on Niall’s earlobe and Niall squeaks and freezes, completely shocked.  _Why was Zayn coming onto him?!_

Zayn pulls away from his ear and looks Niall up and down, as if checking him out. Niall watches Zayn flick his tongue out and lick his lips, looking like he wants to eat Niall up. Niall shivers involuntarily. Zayn see’s, and finally his eyes wander up to Niall’s face, and in a split second he’s ontop of the blond haired boy, meshing their lips together. Niall unfreezes and hesitantly rests his hands on Zayn’s hips while the  older boy runs his hands through Niall’s bleached locks. 

Zayn licks along Niall’s bottom lip, and Niall opens his mouth and lets him in. Niall’s grip on Zayn’s waist tightens as he feels Zayn’s tongue trace the roof of his mouth, and his moan is muffled by Zayn’s mouth. Niall pulls back slightly to nibble on Zayn’s lip and he notices that the other boy shivers and Niall develops his own smirk. He sticks one hand up under Zayn’s t-shirt, running it all over Zayn’s well-defined chest, brushing over his hyper-sensitive nipples, taking one into his hand and pinching it slightly. Zayn moans and it just turns Niall on even more.

Niall pulls away from the kiss and tugs on Zayn’s shirt, signaling that he wants to take it off. The other boy nods and raises his arms slightly so Niall can remove it. Zayn does the same to Niall’s shirt, and they toss the offending clothes onto the floor. 

Zayn whispers, “Bed,” and Niall begins walking Zayn backwards until the backs of his knees hit the edge of the bed. Zayn falls onto the bed, Niall on top of him. They continue to kiss as Niall drags a hand up and down Zayn’s chest a couple of times, pinching and pulling at Zayn’s nipples every couple seconds. He drags his hand lightly down Zayn’s stomach to his waistband, and he slips his fingers past the waistband and pets lightly at Zayn’s hips using only a feather-light touch, making the boy groan and thrust his hips up slightly.

Niall smirks into the kiss, and he removes his hand and drags it further down, and grasps Zayn through his jeans. Zayn moans loudly into Niall’s mouth and pushes his hips up, a signal to tell him to take his jeans off. Niall pulls away from the kiss as he undoes the button and unzips them, then he drags down Zayn’s jeans and boxers at the same time, and Zayn shivers when cool air hits his cock. 

Niall brushes his fingertips over Zayn’s length, and Zayn almost cries in sexual frustration.

“What do you want, Zayn?” Niall whispers, purposefully using Zayn’s first name.

“Ugh, fuck.” Zayn groans. “Just fucking touch me already!” 

Niall complies and wraps his hand around Zayn’s member, jerking his hand up and down. He runs his thumb over the slit and Zayn keens, throwing his head back against the pillows. “Yeah, you like this don’t you baby?” Zayn just groans loudly and nods his head, bucking his hips up to meet Niall’s jerks.

Niall leans forward and licks his way up Zayn’s neck to his ear, making the boy under him shiver. “I want you to open yourself up for me, yeah? I want to watch you get yourself ready for my cock. Can you do that?” Niall breathes into Zayn’s ear. Zayn turns bright red and wants to tell Niall that if he wants to fuck him that Niall has to stretch him, but then Niall hovers his face over Zayn’s and Zayn see’s no mockery or malice in the bright blue eyes; only lust and something else he can’t quite place. Zayn nods. Niall smirks and pulls away from the dark haired boy, watching him hungrily as Zayn sticks three fingers in his mouth, sucking on them and covering them with spit to get them wet.

Zayn reaches his hand down and Niall watches him tease a finger around his own entrance before pushing in. Zayn’s eyes roll back into his head and a delicious moan comes out of his mouth, and Niall bites his lip and palms himself through his tented jeans. Soon, Zayn’s up to three fingers, pushing them up inside of himself as Niall watches the pleasure on Zayn’s face. His eyes are closed and he’s running his teeth over his kiss-swollen bottom lip, and Niall just wants him already. Niall strips off his jeans and boxers as fast as he can and positions himself between Zayn’s legs.

“Ready for my cock, baby?” Niall whispers, and Zayn’s eyes open in and he looks at Niall’s cock in anticipation. After a couple seconds, Zayn removes his fingers from his own entrance and nods, laying back onto the pillows. Niall guides himself to Zayn’s entrance and pushes in with one swift thrust, burying himself to the hilt. Zayn’s breath hitches and he feels the other boy clench around him and it feels  _so fucking good_.

“Ni-Niall…” Zayn moans out.

“What do you want? Tell me.” Niall says, dragging his fingertips up and down Zayn’s sides. 

“M-move.” 

Niall grips Zayn’s hips hard enough to bruise and starts thrusting. Zayn moves thrusts down to meet Niall’s thrusts, breathy  _ah-ah_  sounds falling from his lips. Niall shifts and starts thrusting faster in a different spot, and when Zayn cries out he smiles triumphantly.  _Got it._ Niall thrusts as fast as he can into that exact spot, making the bed shake and Zayn is almost incoherently screaming. He reaches for his cock but Niall slaps his hand away. 

“No touching yourself. You’re going to come from my cock only. Understand?” Niall says sternly. Zayn groans loudly when Niall hits his prostate again. After a particularly hard thrust, Zayn is crying out and clenching around Niall, spurts of come ribboning across his chest and on the bed spread. A couple thrusts later, Niall moans loudly and spills into the other boy. Out of breath, Niall pulls out of Zayn and collapses beside him. Voluntarily, he wraps his arm around Zayn’s waist and they both promptly fall asleep, exhausted. 

-

The next morning Niall is woken by light streaming through the window, and his head is pounding and he has the horrible after taste of alcohol in his mouth. He feels nauseous so he lays as still as possible to try and settle his stomach so he can sit up without puking. Then he realizes that he feels heat radiating from his left, and he looks over to see Zayn Malik curled up on the bed next to him, naked. Niall’s eyes widen as he looks down at himself and realizes that he too, is naked. Squeaking slightly, Niall throws himself out of the bed because _what the fuck is he doing in bed naked with Zayn Malik anyway?!._

Actually, Niall has a fairly good idea he knows what happened, but he’s so confused because he thought he hated Zayn so why does the ridiculous thought of  _“wow Zayn looks really gorgeous”_  continue to run through his mind every time he looks at the older boy? 

Utterly confused and sort of freaked out, Niall throws on the closest pair of jeans, boxers and shirt, grabs his shirt and makes a beeline for the door. He throws it open and runs down the hallway and down the stairs, wanting to get out of there as fast as possible. As he passes through the living room, he notices his best friend and Louis Tomlinson cuddled up on the couch asleep. Niall takes a moment to mentally coo at how cute they look and he has to smile because he’s just happy that Liam finally got the guy he’s wanted. 

After a couple seconds of gazing stupidly at the adorable couple on the couch, Niall remembers why he was in a rush in the first place and promptly sprints out the front door and down the street to his house. He opens his front door quietly, careful not to wake his parents or his brother, and clambers up the stairs and throws himself down onto the bed, burying his face into the pillow.

He drifts off to sleep and dreams about a dark haired boy with tattoo’s, brown eyes and a leather jacket. 

-

About four hours later, Niall is woken by an incessant pounding on his bedroom door. Disgruntled, Niall rolls out of bed and trudges to the door. He throws it open and he’s greeted with the sign of his best friend who looks slightly out of breath. 

“What do you want Liam? It’s—” Niall checks his watch. “—only 10:30. Leave and then come back in another two hours.”

Non-plussed by Niall’s rude greeting, Liam barges into the younger boy’s room and sits down on his messy bed. He puts his face into his hands and groans loudly. Niall knows this is Liam speak for  _‘i want to tell you something but i want you to ask me about it so im just not talking out of context’._

Niall rolls his eyes and sits down next to Liam. “What’s wrong?”

Liam’s response is muffled behind his hands. “I kissed Louis.”

Niall jumps up and shouts excitedly, then claps Liam on the back. “Good job mate! Knew you had it in ya’!” 

Liam pulls his hands away and his face is flushed. “Yeah. He asked me out too.”

Niall grins widely and sits back down, knocking his shoulder against Liam’s. “Congrats, dude!” 

Liam nods. “Yeah, but the weird thing is was that in the middle of asking me out, Zayn Malik just comes barreling down the stairs looking all frantic and he was wearing a shirt that looked like the one you were wearing last night and— _holy fuck Niall is that Zayn’s shirt?!_ ”

Niall’s eyes widen and he looks down at his shirt and yep, fuck, it’s Zayn’s shirt. Niall groans loudly, throwing himself back onto his bed dramatically. 

“Why are you wearing Zayn’s shirt?” Liam asks, giving him a weird look.

Niall inspects his ceiling, refusing to look Liam in the eyes. “I might’ve— Well, _we_  might’ve— uhm…”

Liam huffed impaitently. “You two  _what_?”

Niall blushes bright red. “We might’ve—uh— had sex last night…”

Liam stands up, utterly shocked. “ _Wait you what_?!”

“We… we had sex.” Niall muttered again, throwing his arm over his eyes, embarrassed.

“I thought you didn’t like Zayn!” Liam throws his hands up into the air, exasperated and still obviously confused. 

Niall sits up abruptly. “I don’t!” 

_Yeah, that’s what you keep telling yourself,_  a little voice in his head mocks. Niall tells the little voice to shut the fuck up.

Liam gets a thoughtful look on his face and Niall becomes a little scared because  _oh shit, thats Liam’s ‘philosophical’ look_.

Liam looks Niall straight in the eye and says, “Some people say that drunken actions are just things that people wish would happen but would never have the guts to do sober.” Then Liam leaves, and Niall can’t help the but blush when the little voice inside his head screams  _I TOLD YOU SO_.

Memories of that morning come flooding back, and he remembers how beautiful Zayn looked when the sunrise lighting was shining through the open blinds, hitting Zayn perfectly and making him look like even more of an angel. His face was soft, and he loved the way Zayn’s perfectly pouty lips were upturned in a little smile. 

_Fuck_ , Niall thinks. _I’m screwed._

_  
_Niall then wonders when did Liam become so damn smart and observant.

-

Niall is sitting on his couch that night, watching movies and wallowing in self pity. His parents are out on some date thing and his brother is doing only hell knows what. He’s alone and he’s grateful.

Well, until he hears the doorbell ring. Niall grumbles curses under his breath as he forces himself off of the couch to go answer the door. He turns the knob and pulls the door open, and he;s greeted with an unusual sight: Zayn Malik is standing on his doorstep, wearing Niall’s shirt, and looking very shy.

“Uh…” Niall starts, not used to seeing Zayn on his doorstep.

Zayn flushes. “Look, I-I know this might be a little weird. But we need to talk.”

Niall nods, knowing exactly what Zayn means. He steps back to let Zayn through. Zayn enters cautiously, slightly nervous. Niall doesn’t blame him for being nervous, because he’s not exactly sure how to handle this situation either. 

Niall motions to the couch. “Sit down. I’ll go make some tea.”

About five minutes later, Niall comes back and sees Zayn sitting awkwardly on his couch, looking around the room curiously. He hands Zayn his cup and Zayn nods gratefully. He sits next to Zayn, but tries to keep a good amount of distance between them,

Zayn begins, taking a deep breath and looking Niall straight in the eyes. “We need to talk about last night—”

Niall cuts him off. “Look, why don’t we just forget about it? It was just a mistake. It didn’t mean anything. No harm done right?” Niall feels his heart lurch strangely when Zayn’s face falls at his suggestion. “What?”

“What— What if I don’t want to forget? What if it did mean something to me?” Zayn says quietly, ducking his head, obviously embarrassed.

Niall looks at Zayn, his mouth gaping like a fish. _Did Zayn just say that last night wasn’t just a mistake?! **What?!**_

_**  
**_Zayn takes Niall’s lack of a response as Niall turning him down, so he just sets his cup down and stands up, refusing to look Niall in the eye. “Y-you know what? Forget I said anything. It- it was stupid anyway.” Zayn stutters over his words, and tries to bolt from the house. Niall, who’s slightly quicker than Zayn, beats him to the door and refuses to move.

“Niall, please move.” Zayn sounds close to crying and Niall feels a tug on his heart strings. “Niall— I’m sorry. Just ignore what I said. It’s no big deal, really—”

“Zayn,” Niall cuts off Zayn’s apologies. “Zayn, look at me.”

Zayn shakes his head, determined to look anywhere else but Niall. 

Niall tucks two fingers under Zayn’s chin, forcing the older boy to look at him. Niall sees that Zayn’s eyes are red-rimmed and pleading— pleading for Niall to just let him leave. 

Niall’s whole speech about wanting to take back what he said earlier is forgotten as he throws caution to the wind and surges forward, planting a kiss on the other boys lips. Niall pulls away after a couple seconds, his cheeks tinted red. 

Zayn is looking at him with a shocked expression. “W- _what_?”

Niall smiled widely. “I like you too, you dolt. I didn’t want to forget about last night; I just said that because I thought you wanted too.”

Zayn looks like hes about to cry again, but he just slings his arms around Niall’s neck and kisses him once more before burying his face into Niall’s neck. Niall can feel the grin forming on Zayn’s face as he wraps his arms around Zayn’s waist. 

-

Both Niall and Zayn spend the rest of the weekend together, laying in Niall’s bed, curled up around each other, just telling the other about their life. They share kisses and laughs, and really begin to regret all those years that they spent hating each other when they could have been doing this instead.

Well, better late than never, right?


End file.
